Clandestine nanoelectromechanical tags for identification and authentication

The realization of truly unclonable identification and authentication tags is the key factor in protecting the global economy from an ever-increasing number of counterfeit attacks. Here, we report on the demonstration of nanoscale tags that exploit the electromechanical spectral signature as a fingerprint that is characterized by inherent randomness in fabrication processing. Benefiting from their ultraminiaturized size and transparent constituents, these clandestine nanoelectromechanical tags provide substantial immunity to physical tampering and cloning. Adaptive algorithms are developed for digital translation of the spectral signature into binary fingerprints. A large set of tags fabricated in the same batch is used to estimate the entropy of the corresponding fingerprints with high accuracy. The tags are also examined under repetitive measurements and temperature variations to verify the consistency of the fingerprints. These experiments highlight the potential of clandestine nanoelectromechanical tags for the realization of secure identification and authentication methodologies applicable to a wide range of products and consumer goods. NEMS for security: tamper-proof wireless identification tags at the nanoscaleNanoscale, tamper-proof product identification tags offer significant benefits over currently used technologies. Conventional product ID tags, such as QR codes or RFID tags, are intrinsically vulnerable to tampering or cloning. Roozbeh Tabrizian, and a team from the University of Florida, United States, created a new ID tag technology based on NEMS (nano-electro-mechanical systems). The NEMS tag is tiny, transparent, and relies on the nanoscale variation in batch-manufactured materials to produce many tags with unique fingerprints. The fingerprints comprise an individual electromagnetic spectra profile, which can be read and converted to digital ID. Due to its small size and transparency, NEMS tags are difficult to differentiate and can be applied to a wide range of products. The team say their tags are easily read in a high-interference environment, and are low cost.